The renaissance of blue and white interior style I wrote about in March 2022 is now growing apace on both sides of the Atlantic. It is like alchemy takes place whenever these two colours connect as together they spark something excitingly fresh and hopeful. And, in an uncertain world, maybe this intoxicating chemistry is another reason why decorating with blue and white is once again proving to be so inspiring.
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It isn’t particularly usual for a coastal style interiors story to find itself at the centre of international news headlines, especially when there is so much else going on in the world. But in the Spring when I was researching Styling Box schemes for a client’s Greek Island holiday home, and writing about coastal style for the August issues of Period Living and Saga magazine, a curious ‘Coastal Grandmother Style’ story was emerging from a Tik Tok influencer in California.
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The UK is now a thriving nation of shopkeepers, albeit vintage and antique ones. From traditional high street shops to online, outdoor markets and brocantes, this vibrant retail scene is responding to the joy and sustainability of including antiques and vintage in a decorating scheme. *The White Door Brocante (no relation), now in its third year, is a must-see event taking place on 9th June 2022 in Purley-on-Thames, West Berkshire.
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A very Happy New Year to you! The blog is taking a look at some interior design trends for 2022. Country House style (with sustainability always at its heart) looks again to the East for decorating inspiration. On the blog radar too is an interesting juxtaposition between Pantone’s Metaverse inspired colour of the year versus Mother Nature’s slow decorating palette. Let’s start though by opening the door to the new ‘Garden Room’ …
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Faberge in London: Romance to Revolution is an exhibition of 200 exquisite Carl Faberge objets which opens on 20 November 2021 and runs until May 2022. What I didn’t know when I went to the V&A press show and found out after, is quite how closely linked Larissa Miloradovich of Milola Designs is to the Russian Imperial family. Not only were Larissa’s ancestors at the centre of Russian Imperial life but Shuvalov Palace, which was a pre Revolution family estate, now houses the permanent exhibition of Faberge in St Petersburg.
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As well as smart Buenos Aires design of the 1970s and a refreshing look at decorating with white, it is the smaller interior design details which have also been catching my eye this Autumn. The blog takes a look at some of these new design directions, looking in particular at the amazing wealth of artisan lighting we have in the UK. And If you haven’t got designs on an ‘indoor garden room or table’ by now, you might find that you do in 2022…
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It is exciting to see how a desire for sustainability and the vaccum of traditional high street retail is being filled with a renewed interest in pre-loved items. This burgeoning interiors and fashion landscape now extends from car boots and charity shops to smart antique shops as well as individual online sellers. But it is the concept of a French-inspired ‘Brocante’ which has recently caught my eye.
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Just as the IPCC ‘Climate Wake-up call report’ is published this morning, I thought I would repost an updated version of this blog from January 2020. It feels like a drop in the ocean perhaps but every little helps, I hope.
Adopting sustainable interior decorating ideas really doesn’t mean that ‘style’ has to exit stage left! Quite the contrary. I believe a new sustainable approach based on a few old school values means that interior style is having a healthy rejig. With a little inspiration from the past, here are a few sustainable interior decorating ideas with a focus on some inspiring companies who are not only making changes about how they do things but who are sharing it quite vocally too.
Are you the sort of house hunter who knows straight away whether it is ‘the one’ or not? This was very much the case for Jo Beavan who runs her successful online ceramic oven to tableware business Polkadot Parsley. Jo and her husband Simon who is a chartered civil engineer, have a long-standing love of France and of period homes. So when Jo spotted an Oxfordshire farmhouse for sale with a Georgian frontage and a French-style walled garden, the contracts were as good as signed. The only slight sticking point was that their own family house wasn’t on the market yet…
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When a press release dropped into my inbox for a forthcoming attic sale at Dunrobin Castle in Sutherland, I think my jaw also dropped, just ever so slightly. Sales like this don’t happen very often. A recent decluttering of the attics and cellars at the Scottish castle revealed generations of long forgotten treasures of domestic life. Prior to the sale on 20 April 2021, Bonhams auctioneers in Edinburgh have curated a selection of some of the 450 lots with an evocative set of photos.
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Charis White Interiors 